When I sailed I wore a lifejacket, when I drive a car I wear a seatbelt, when I bike I wear a helmet, when I drive I am sober, when I build a fire I watch it, I don't do these things because I live in fear. I do these things because they make sense. Like a mask in a pandemic.
Every time I go indoors to a public venue, I wear my N95 mask and distance. When I do that I am showing respect to all those inside by reducing the chances they get infected by me while also protecting myself. It's a simple thing - respect for others.
Focus on the positives: since the convoys started every Canadian town is a little safer and a little smarter. They are all missing their village idiots.
Our government told each of us to assess our own personal risk. I did that and I have come to the conclusion that our government's hands-off approach is a major contributor to my personal risk.
With truck protestors crying that they are losing their freedom and many aiming to remove vaccine mandates, let's make one thing clear: the people who are losing the most freedom are the millions of seniors and vulnerable who will be at risk once all precautions are dismantled.
Personally, I could not live with myself if I thought I infected someone who later died because I chose to not wear a simple mask to help protect them. I don't know how anyone could.
#WearAMask
I'd like to remind everyone that the Science Table, Public Health Ontario, several MOH's, myself, and many others recommended the return of mask mandates. Dr. Moore rejected all that advice today.
#onpoli
There's no other word but ashamed for how I feel about Ontario right now and the many people who will cheerfully toss their masks, infect our most vulnerable, and add to our death counts. The opportunity to be better than this has passed. Our character was tested and we failed.
With only a handful still showing interest in the weekly Ontario charts, I will stop producing them. I will also be leaving this Twitter account locked and dormant at year end. Thanks for following and take care of yourselves. ♥️
I wear an N95 mask when I go to any public place indoors 💯. I have not been infected yet, I don't have to worry about long covid effects like cognitive impairment or heart issues. I like my brain and heart just the way they are, thank you.
#masks
#maskswork
Today I am angry, angry that the little girl next door was infected at her mostly maskless school after she was careful for 2 1/2 years. She did everything right. Her govt, her CMOH, her school, and other parents let her down. Mass infections are being forced.
#onted
#onpoli
Current public health logic is something like this: Drunk driving accidents are rare now. As a reward for your efforts, we're removing drunk driving laws so everyone can enjoy a good drink and drive home. We don't recommend drinking and driving but it's now up to individuals.
I know many of you are now a small minority wearing masks indoors. Doing the right thing isn’t always popular but it does underline that you have the courage to stand behind your own independent assessment based on the best scientific evidence. Canada needs your leadership. 👏🏻
I was asked my opinion on the Freedom Convoy movement. If I was not clear, they want fewer vaccinations, less masking, less science, more disinformation, more Covid deaths, more intimidation of freely elected government , more hatred, more racism, and they call this “freedom”.
I don't care who you are. If I see you without a mask indoors when infections are rampant and there are many still at risk, I will see you as ignorant of science, narcissistic, and uncaring of the vulnerable around you. I will truly see you unmasked for what you are.
1/16 🧵Last day reporting on covid here. Some final notes:
1. Don't accept the takeover of social media by those who encourage covid disinformation and pay-for-influence.
2. Don't allow public health and govs to escape scrutiny for their 2022 abdication of responsibilities.
I don't care if 99.9% choose to not masks indoors. I will continue to do what the data and scientific evidence suggest because I value my health and I don't want the regret of recklessly infecting others unknowingly or burdening hospital staff. 😷 💯
I wear a mask where people gather in indoor public spaces. I am being told to respect those who don't. I don't.
I have a brain, I understand how masks reduce spread and illness, and I don't respect bad choices that can harm the health of others.
Omicron pushed us to give up by teasing us with "mildness for most" while quietly slaughtering many. And, except for a few, we did give up. This is how historians will remember 2022 - the greatest failure of Public Health in our lifetime.
I'm not ok with seniors dying and setting a record for covid deaths this year. And I'm REALLY not ok with setting a record for child deaths in Canada. Put on the mask and stop whining over a piece of fabric. Kids need our help now. A mask is NOTHING compared to what they face.
Most missed a bombshell from Dr. Moore this week. He said the return of any measures or mask mandates will depend on ICUs. Last Fall he said he would not react to cases, only hospitalizations. Now that hospitalizations set records in 2022, he’s switched to ICU.
#onhealth
#onpoli
Do I agree with the federal decision to remove mask requirements for trains and planes? Absolutely 100% against. The last walls of intelligence and caring are falling in Canada. We should be adding more mask requirements, not taking them away, especially now as infections climb.
Everybody is tired and harmed by this
#covid19
pandemic. We all want to be free of this and go back to our normal lives. But inhaling and sharing viral load without a mask indoors is not the solution. Normal right now is wearing an N95 to help us all, including you.
#maskswork
I am old. I have seen a lot in my time. I have voted for all three major Canadian parties in my life and respected their leaders. I have to tell you that I have never seen a more extreme and repellent leader than Poilievre. Our country must do better. Think hard before voting.
SickKids in Toronto is warning of a shortage of pain and fever medications for kids. It's a mystery what could be causing this with a BA.5 infection wave still near peak, low vaccination levels for kids, and the dropping of masks and other precautions. Total mystery.
#onhealth
I realize I'm fighting a losing battle for Ontario given the outlook and the low public appetite for negative news or precautions like masking or even boosters. All I'm trying to do now is reduce the harm inflicted on the relatively small number who follow me. Winter is baked in.
Opinion: The debate on masks would never have taken place if public health, supported by government and experts, had actually educated the public on their benefits, why they were needed, provided evidence they worked, how to use them, and gave quality masks away.
#BringBackMasks
If you want to know what I am thinking tonight, I am thinking how, as an older Canadian, I no longer trust our levels of government and I no longer believe Canadians are as moral or as compassionate as I once assumed. That myth has aged and is now broken.
Right now CBC The National is talking about ERs in crisis. Let me tell you why this is happening from my POV:
Staff shortages due to
- BA.5 wave infections with zero PH action
- Terrible 5 day isolation rule
- No mask mandates
- Underpay and staff burn out
#onhealth
CMOH is telling Ontarians to even mask in their home with toddlers while at the same time arguing that people do not need mask mandates for public spaces and schools to help prevent those children and parents from getting infected in the first place. Makes no sense.
[resend]
We know masks reduce your chances of getting infected, especially quality masks and especially now when infection rates remain very high with Omicron. What exactly is the downside of continuing to wear a mask indoors to protect each other? Why the rush? I honestly don't get it.
Ontario PSA: use your rapid tests to check if you are covid-infectious, do not leave isolation if you still test positive. Do not follow Dr. Moore’s misinformation on leaving isolation early.
#covid19
How does a Premier and a CMOH get away with citing test positivity as a sign for reopening when they haven't allowed the public to get tested since New Year's? Are media really that asleep?
#onpoli
In future I plan to restrict replies on mask topics to those I follow. If you follow me and wish to have the opportunity to reply, post here and I will get around to following you when I can. Harassment, trolling, and lies in this thread will be blocked.
Somehow I am not reassured by politicians telling me that hospitals can handle a lot of Covid cases. I’d be more reassured if politicians were telling me they were taking proactive steps to minimize infections and hospitalizations. I personally don’t want to be hospitalized.
Honestly, I don't care what maskless people think of my mask, I care about what the virus thinks of it. If I find a better mask option that fits my budget, I'd wear it in a flash, no matter what it looks like. I plan on exiting this mess with minimal infections and health issues.
I absolutely do hold all organizations, school boards, universities, employers, stores, dentists, doctors, pharmacists, grocery stores, transit, taxis, concert halls, and others responsible when they do not require masks in their indoor spaces, given the high infection levels.
I live in a province with probably the most corrupt government in the last century of Canadian politics. Not just corrupt, but blatantly and arrogantly so, believing they are immune from consequences.
I don't recall ever seeing a more apathetic and impotent Ontario public.
We have a government that considers it too coercive to require masks when infections are high but not too coercive to move old people out of hospitals against their will.
#onpoli
#onhealth
#covid19
One of the freest countries in the world that recently had a free election does not need freedom lessons from a bunch of troublemakers intent on whining about losing an election or the use of scientifically-proven vaccines and masks to keep people safer in a pandemic.
#Ottawa
My plan right now is to log off this account by month end, assuming a new variant wave does not start. The tracking data has become murky, hospitalizations and deaths are declining, and many are now vaccinated or infected. So less need or ability to share risks and info.
We don't say "shirts are mandated" or "shoes are mandated" indoors. We says shirts and shoes are "required" because they make sense and are reasonable requirements.
Masks should be required indoors. Anyone with enough cajones to do the right thing can put up a sign. No one will.
The only oppression of freedom I see is unmasked and unvaccinated people making it high risk for a senior like me to visit places I would like to enter such as my local grocery store or pharmacy. Wearing a mask to help make others safer is not oppression. It's teamwork.
Opinion: The idea that teachers cannot let parents know about the infectious disease risk in their classroom is a gross perversion of public health.
#onted
I see anecdotal "rapid tests don't work anymore". I have seen no scientific evidence to support the statement. You need to know that:
1) With Omicron and vaccinations, RATs may not test positive until ~day 5 after exposure or symptoms.
2) Need to swab throat and nose
⤵️
I can't think of another point in Ontario's long history where a significant health crisis was taking place and the Minister of Health was unavailable for such a long period of time. The title is "Minister of HEALTH".
#onhealth
#onpoli
Don't say much outside covid but a few things I will say this week:
I am for Chrystia Freeland and against bullies
I am for Lisa LaFlamme and against corporate ageism and sexism
I am for science tables and against political interference
I am for Ukraine and against invaders
I may be going against public health wisdom in Canada but I'd like to see the immunocompromised and those in bad health given priority over those who choose to not wear masks or get vaccinated. Crazy I know.
To the folks who say I am getting paid to get on here and share my views on covid. I wish lol. No. I am retired, I work for no one, don't get paid, and don't accept donations. If I am a "social influencer" it is because science and data should influence people in a pandemic. duh
That silence you hear is the sound of mass Omicron infections of maskless school children and parents as Ontario suppresses the data that would shed light on what is happening. You are being silenced.
Can’t believe I have to say this.
The high student illness absence rates are not due to the negligence of students or parents, they are due to the negligence of schools in not protecting their students.
Dr. Moore, you broke the public health advice you gave just days ago to protect our children. That advice has now been completely undermined. Your reprehensible actions have harmed families and children. You need to resign.
#onpoli
#onhealth
We don't need less masking, we need universal masking back, better masks, and wide distribution of free high quality masks with clear communications, especially for those at highest risk, the marginalized, and those with lower incomes. We don't need surrender, we need action.
Opinion: Stop calling the parties of Doug Ford, Danielle Smith, and Pierre Poilievre conservative. They are no more conservative than the Truck Convoy mob were freedom fighters. I am old enough to remember what true progressive conservatism was. This crew is not it.
Explain to me like I’m five years old. With infections climbing in many countries and hospital beds filling with Covid patients, how exactly is the pandemic over?
When asked why Dr. Tam was wearing a mask at a press conference recently, Ontario's CMOH Kieran Moore said he did not know her personal risk situation.
I can answer that: she understands the data and the science that covid is airborne and she has a working brain.
Canada is committed to support the Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response Political Declaration, a renewed commitment to addressing and preventing future pandemics, adopted at the
#UNGA
.
Let’s make the world safer, more equitable, and resilient.
Many of you are being gaslit into believing covid is over. This is summer, expect infection risks to be temporarily lower after the BA.2 wave burns itself out. But the next in line fittest variants will almost certainly grow and generate more (re)infections, illness, and deaths.
Dr. Juni, ex-director of ON Science Table in Thursday interview (per Ottawa Citizen):
“The reason I still wear a mask is because, first of all, I still don’t want to contribute to the chain of transmission, because there are vulnerable people out there,” (cont'd ⤵️)
#OnHealth
If you could see Omicron particles being exhaled by people and floating around indoors you would run back to the car and put on the best mask you could find. And you wouldn't stick your nose out either.
When I grew up I was taught patriotism is helping your country, not harming your country. Now when I see a Canadian flag on a pickup, I don't see patriotism.
Are we waking up yet?
1. Mask mandates for high risk locations
2. Free distribution of N95-level masks including child- sized
3. CO2 monitors in school classes, workplaces and public spaces
4. Reset isolation rules
5. Extension of free rapid tests
6. IAQ task force
7. New CMOH
🧵I said the 5 day isolation rule is a lie. Now let's talk about it based on science. Because one of the greatest public risks is someone leaving isolation while infectious, thinking they're not. I'm going to start with science and then walk through isolation.
#covid19
#onhealth
Opinion: The removal of mask mandates by provincial governments, given the extreme contagiousness of Omicron, was the stupidest and most harmful political decision in the history of Canada.
#Covid19
I have zero respect for "experts" or doctors who have gone on major media and confidently minimized covid or downplayed vaccines knowing their statements could lead to fewer vaccinations, fewer masks, more infections, more illness, and more deaths. And the results are rolling in.
The fact that so many are following me and others on covid facts is not my fault, it's the fault of the government of Ontario, the Ministry of Health, and the Chief Medical Officer of Health. I did not ask for this gig to last 2 1/2 years. Do your job to protect Ontario.
Statistics you won't hear about.
Ontario's current
#covid19
hospitalizations are more than ten times higher than they were at this time a year ago.
#onhealth
To foster confidence for parents and kids, I can think of no reason why top Ontario government and public health officials would not join school kids for a day, wearing their cloth masks, attending their classes, and eating lunch with them.
#WalkTheTalk
#onted
#omicron
I wonder if any of the convoy truckers or their supporters ever stop to think about the 2,885 Canadians who have died this month from
#covid19
, or whether they think their "freedom" comes with no cost to other Canadians.
#TruckersForFreedom2022
I believe I have carefully studied every major mRNA vaccine trial, almost every vaccine effectiveness and safety study, and can tell you that today my lovely wife had her bivalent booster and I will have mine on Thursday, to offset our last dose waning and prep for fall risks.
If there's one thing Canadians don't need, it's TV news interviews with returning travellers complaining they've been unfairly treated by the new rules and the price of quarantine hotels.
🧵NEW - Worldwide expert panel study, Nature:
1. "SARS-CoV-2 is an airborne virus that presents the highest risk of transmission in indoor areas with poor ventilation."
Agree/Somewhat agree - 100%.
#CovidIsAirborne
#Covid19
Just remember you are not asking for anyone to give you rapid antigen tests for free. You paid for those tests with your tax dollars and they were diverted away from you by those in government who intervened.
#FreeTheRATs
#onpoli
🧵
#Masks
:
#CovidisAirborne
In advance of a potential fall/winter seasonal set of Omicron waves, this thread will share evidence, advice and reminders on how to up your game when it comes to masks and handling indoor airborne risks.
#Covid19
Opinion: I didn't agree with Trudeau on the Emergencies Act. It should have been enacted SOONER, given the lack of swift action by provinces like Ontario to limit the damage from illegal occupations of infrastructure. They cost us billions and harmed many.
#FreeDumbConvoy
Kieran Moore says he is loath to invoke mask mandates 1,000 days into the pandemic. I say after 1,000 days, he of all people should know why they are needed now. He has given up. 70% of Canadians are willing to support a mandate if needed. Apparently Dr. Moore is one of the 30%.
Does someone out there seriously expect me to trust a new 15 person science panel appointed to replace the independent one, and to serve under Kieran Moore and a government that has consistently fought against the advice of scientists and experts? I wasn't born yesterday. Nyet.